A Family Trip to Japan with Len and Dawn

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. 

You know we like to discuss family travel on this show. Well today we're talking about an amazing trip to Japan with our good friends Len and Dawn.  What are the tips for immersing yourself in an international destination with a young family? Let's find out. 

Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel.   

Len & Dawn Casa

Travel Advisors

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Transcript

Ryan: 0:00

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. You know we like to discuss family travel on this show. Well today we're talking about an amazing trip to Japan with our good friends Lynn and Dawn. What are the tips for immersing yourself in an international destination with a young family? Let's find out. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel. So, Julie, I love talking about family travel. You know that we do it a lot on this show. It's one of your favorite topics, I know.

Julie: 0:41

Yeah, that's literally what I'm here

Ryan: 0:42

That, that is your life. You're like, you're like, family travel is my life, family is my life, little people doing strange things is my life. So today we're going to talk about a destination that I don't know much about. We're going to talk about Japan.

Julie: 1:01

I'm excited to hear about this.

Ryan: 1:03

Do you want to go to Japan?

Julie: 1:05

My husband my husband would love to go to Japan. Steven would love it.

Ryan: 1:09

Very

Julie: 1:10

When I told him we were doing this show, he was like, I need to listen to this one.

Ryan: 1:13

Well, I'm hoping that our guests talk about Tokyo because that is what I am most excited about when I think of Japan. But I bet there's going to be more things they're going to get me excited about with this. So let's welcome Lynn and Dawn to our show. Welcome guys!

Len and Dawn: 1:29

Hey, how you doing? So excited to be here.

Ryan: 1:31

Why don't you give a little introduction to folks as far as who you are and where you're from and all that good stuff.

Len and Dawn: 1:38

I'm Len and this is Dawn, my better half.

Julie: 1:41

Okay. Okay.

Len and Dawn: 1:50

we are also Travel Advisors right alongside Ryan and Julie here. we don't have as much experience as they do, but we're on the ball. We're coming around very fast.

Ryan: 2:00

Absolutely. You guys are doing great. And we got to meet you in January, so that was exciting. Sat at my table during the conference and then talked to Julie. So we're glad to have you here.

Len and Dawn: 2:12

Thanks.

Ryan: 2:13

So, give us a breakdown of your family. Who traveled, we won't get into the trip specifically yet, but what is your family breakdown?

Len and Dawn: 2:22

Okay, well, so it's the two of us and then we have two children. Right now, Francesca's 12 and Donatello is 9. At the time of travel, this was last summer, so Francesca was 11 turning 12. We were actually out there when she turned 12. And then Donatello was 8 at the time. Yes, the four of us went and then my brother who young 30s he met us out there as well.

Julie: 2:45

wow.

Ryan: 2:46

Great.

Julie: 2:46

Last week on our episode, we talked about travel tips for the airport that were submitted by you our listeners. So go ahead and listen to that episode from last week, because I bet you have some of the same questions.

Ryan: 2:58

So, Dawn and Lynn, why did you decide on doing a trip to Japan?

Len and Dawn: 3:03

So it's funny. Like we didn't, we actually weren't the ones who did choose it. We didn't decide this at all.

Ryan: 3:10

Okay, next, next question.

Len and Dawn: 3:12

no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's definitely really fun about this. So how this actually worked was, as our kids were starting to get bigger, we're like, okay, well, we want every fifth birthday. We wanted to be something special. Every fifth I do something bigger and as they get older, we want them to be able to choose. So for each of their 5th birthdays, we chose Disney World because where else you know,

Ryan: 3:32

Yeah, yeah.

Len and Dawn: 3:33

that's our favorite place like 2nd home. But I think Francesco is around eight or so at the time. And we were like, Francesca, where do you want to go for your 10th birthday? Because we're like, okay, we have a little bit of time to save up. And we, we didn't expect her to say Japan. We both looked at each other like, what the heck? How are we supposed to do that? Didn't we

Ryan: 3:51

my son once said he wanted to go to Italy because he liked pizza. So, you know, it doesn't take much.

Len and Dawn: 3:56

That's a great answer though. But we did ask her too, cause we're like, she's eight. What does she know about Japan? What, like, what is this? And so she said that she wanted to see the buildings, the culture the food and then I was like, we're looking at each other like, okay, we got to, can we make this work? We'll look into that. And then we did ask my son, where do you want to go for your, you know, 10th birthday? And he's like, I'm going to go to McDonald's. We're like, you've got to kid. Very different children since then he's changed his mind. But in any case, Francesca chose Japan.

Ryan: 4:25

He might, after going on the trip, be like, I bet I could ask for more than McDonald's.

Julie: 4:31

Awesome!

Len and Dawn: 4:32

We do actually, we actually have his 10th birthday, which is this up. So next year we're going

Julie: 4:38

So guys, tell us a little bit about planning and preparing for this trip, since that destination did kind of come out of nowhere for you.

Len and Dawn: 4:46

see. So planning, we started with I was really gung ho is I'm going to do this myself. I got it handled. I've been reading

Julie: 4:53

Oh, mm hmm.

Len and Dawn: 4:54

Japanese book. It was like a 560 page book. That was just kind of going through nonstop. And then I looked at her one day and I was like, yeah, that's a lot of work. This is too much though, through all of that. And then also we watched YouTube videos and we spoke to other people that we knew who were traveling and we Googled a bunch of stuff. We learned what we wanted to do, but we just didn't know how to book it.

Ryan: 5:16

Yeah, yeah,

Julie: 5:17

it, got it.

Len and Dawn: 5:19

So ding, ding, ding. Hey hi, I've been listening to your podcast. You're Carrie and Rob, right? Yeah.

Julie: 5:25

Okay.

Len and Dawn: 5:26

We want to go to Japan and Carrie's like, what, like, yeah, that's where we're going to go. Can you help us book it? And so that's kind of how the booking went, but the planning was we knew what we wanted to do.

Julie: 5:38

That's

Len and Dawn: 5:38

told her and she just laid it out for us.

Ryan: 5:40

Insider tip here, you know when you're working with a travel advisor like the four of us and and for those of those You that didn't catch you've heard about robin carry before there are agency owners. So that's what the chuckling was about, right? You know the more you come to us with a plan It actually is really helpful. We kind of help people all across the spectrum But having an idea really really makes things Easier in in the in the entire process, I think

Julie: 6:09

But it's also not necessary. They very easily also could have gone and said, We have no idea what we're doing. What should we see in Japan? And. Robin Carey would have also played that role of advising on those things.

Len and Dawn: 6:23

Yeah, which was ideal. And you know, the case, she came at us afterwards, like, Hey, what's your budget? And I was like, I don't know when you have something together, we'll take a look and we'll go with it from there. So when she threw it out at us, I looked at, I was like, that's it done. Where's my credit card swipe? We were really expecting it to be so much more than what it was. And we're so glad that we did tell her that we didn't have a budget because I think that's really important. Like not just and. We don't get clients like this too often either, where they just say, just give me what I want, but it does help build the experience that way. We knew what we wanted to do. And then like, when we see the numbers, we're like, okay, we just needed to work a little bit harder and do a couple more side jobs or something just to make that work. We knew what the experience we wanted to have. We didn't want to go based on the dollar amount

Julie: 7:09

Yeah, you didn't want to sacrifice what you were looking to,

Ryan: 7:12

headed out from Chicago. Talk about the actual trip to Japan. What were the logistics and what was the experience?

Len and Dawn: 7:19

Okay. So like, let's first talk packing because that's part of the

Ryan: 7:22

Yes, very much so.

Len and Dawn: 7:24

We, again, we did the research there prior to all of this and you have to think too, we're traveling with kids. Everything that we learned about is there's a lot of moving because you're not staying at the same hotel the whole time. So you go ahead. Kids that can walk and carry things by themselves. Carry their own. So we did. We backpacked it. We didn't bring anything that was checked in or anything.

Julie: 7:45

What?

Len and Dawn: 7:46

everything we did was carry on. Yes.

Julie: 7:49

impressive! Okay.

Len and Dawn: 7:51

So, we actually went through REI, found like a great bag that had also daybags for the adult bags. So all four of us had very, nice sized bags, but they still fit as carry ons. So then and then the day bags that we have, they also, they were like your personal item. So then, as far as packing goes, we made sure to pack, everything we heard was pack light. You can wash there, which, as family travelers, we highly recommend washing wherever you're at. It's just safer. Three outfits, four outfits, five outfits for the entire time. We were here for 12 days. We also buy, you're also going to buy gear. Yes. So you want a little bit of space for that. But then I came home with a Tokyo t shirt, you know what I mean? So like you can still wear this there. So packing, we did pack light. We packed a couple of pair of shoes. We didn't have to get too fancy or anything. Cause our whole trip was not to be fancy, but it was just to be. The culture, the tours, things. So logistic wise, the packing was, I think one of the biggest things.

Ryan: 8:48

And were the kids pretty good about that or did they give you a stink? I know that's sometimes been a conversation in my household.

Len and Dawn: 8:55

no, honestly, they were really good. Donnie kind of got tired. So when he got tired, we kind of put a hand up there and held it up for him. Or we let him sit his bag down longer. You take breaks, but that's it. But otherwise like overall, I really can't complain about them. Cause. For the heat. So we went in June, right? So June and July, the end of June, early July. It was so hot out there. Be prepared for that. That I did not expect. it, it was, did not know that was gonna be that hot. But in any case, so that's where like he got a little tired and hot, a little cranky. But other than that, like for what it was, it was, they did really well. So I think like that would be a trip. More for the kids that can walk, I would say, but if you have littler ones that can't, I mean, you still could do the stroller and stuff, and it's probably just as, just as fine, but they did pretty well. Yeah, they did. They did well. I mean, we average as adults, 22, 000 steps a day. So I'm saying they're close. 30 more because it's a lot

Julie: 9:52

And what about like, what about like the flight over? Like how long was your flight? Was it really awful or how'd they do with that?

Len and Dawn: 9:59

They did great. Actually, I think the kids did probably better than I did. We did. What was it? Yeah, it's not. So we, we went through, we went through United and United, then pass it over to Nippon airlines and a, and on the way there, we did a straight 13 hours.

Ryan: 10:16

Mm hmm.

Len and Dawn: 10:17

It was, it was fine, however, however, I, and now that I've learned and seen this on, on the, you know, firsthand, I wouldn't then try to go business class to fly that long, a little bit more space, even if it costs me, just not, I look, I went back and I looked What is 500 bucks a person right now? I mean, what is an extra two grand to go business class? I was like, ah, maybe we could swing that and put that somewhere else. And I made

Ryan: 10:42

but not for 13 hours

Len and Dawn: 10:45

I made that mistake. And I wish, I wish we would have went business class because. It would have opened us up, it would open the kids up a little bit, a little bit more leg room, a little bit more of everything. Not that it wasn't comfortable, we had really comfortable seats. It was a very updated type of a plane as well. So that was another thing, we got the four seats. And it had two floors. Yeah, there were like the double layers and stuff. Like we haven't been on a plane like that before. I've been on it once, but that was so long ago. In any case, it was, it was just a very nice. Plain in general. We had, we had the four seats that were in the middle. So all four of us were together. I remember sitting down and Donnie was like, oh my God, this must be first class, first class. And we're like,'cause that's how nice it was. But it wasn't, it wasn't as spa. He doesn't know first class, but he just thought it was because there's a screen there. You could. you can text each other from your screen to the next screen. And we had not been on a plane like that as nice as that before. And then you can play games, movies and all this other stuff. And then they were so excited that they got so many meals throughout the flight. And then they came around with the writers ice cream. My kids were just excited. There's the little things that count for them. But then Francesca did say, mom, can I do pushups? I just need to stand up. And I was like, go for it. So she's in the middle of the aisle doing pushups. No one said anything to her. The service was fantastic. So for really overall, I really can't complain because it could have been much worse. They were very friendly and the food was good. Yeah. Never had airplane food before. And we were kind of like, ah, do we really want to try this? It was so good. Yeah, it was actually, it was probably some of the best shrimp tempura I've ever had.

Ryan: 12:16

Wow, and and and you're headed to Japan. So that's that's saying So, two part question here. The first is, I just want you to kind of take us through kind of the map of your trip. You know, we went here, then we went here, then we went here. And then, what did you notice most about being in Japan that either felt like, yes, we're really in Japan, I knew I'd see this, or this completely took me by surprise?

Len and Dawn: 12:42

Okay. To start first part we started in Tokyo. Cause we, we kind of wanted to see what it was about. That was the easiest place to fly into. We flew into Narita and we, we traveled down into the city and then from Tokyo, we planned to go to Osaka. And then when we got into Osaka, we made a couple of quick, like, Hey, we're going to do the X, Y, Z down the Hiroshima to see the World War II bombings all that history. And then. We bounced back all the way back to Tokyo. So we can hang, Oh, Osaka, then Tokyo. So we can hang out and do Disney, Tokyo and Disney by the sea while we're there. While we're in Osaka, we did do universal, which was ideal as well.

Ryan: 13:31

Gotcha. And you, so you said it was a, it was a 12 day trip.

Len and Dawn: 13:35

Yes.

Ryan: 13:35

Okay. All right.

Len and Dawn: 13:36

When we were talking about Japan, we could never get over the cleanliness of Japan. So being from Chicago, I mean, they try, right. But you know what

Ryan: 13:48

I know exactly what you're talking about.

Len and Dawn: 13:50

I mean? Like we try, but so not just the cleanliness though, like it was the genuine people just in passing. There's, there's just something different there. We're like, okay, this is not. This is not home this is a good thing. It was very nice. The structure that they have in Japan, just in general, and we'll get a little bit deeper later. And then the worth ethic and just the cultures, just what it looks like, how the, how everyone presents themselves. It's just very different

Julie: 14:18

They're not like out in like leggings and like t shirts.

Len and Dawn: 14:22

unfortunately not. I wasn't sure what to expect. Like we weren't sure, like, no, they're, they're very, they're very presentable. They're trendy. They're very,

Ryan: 14:30

I like that. Yeah

Len and Dawn: 14:32

very classy, not, and then like, we'll have to get into like how, how Disney surprised us a little

Ryan: 14:38

did where did you feel welcomed as tourists?

Len and Dawn: 14:41

We, I did. I would say yes. But it's definitely their way or the highway.

Ryan: 14:46

Okay,

Len and Dawn: 14:47

So they welcomed us, but you're going to do it

Ryan: 14:50

the expectation is you're gonna do it the Japanese way not try to do it the American way If you

Len and Dawn: 14:56

For example li we drive on the right sid if you're going up the st you're going on the right stay to the right out the side, you stay to the lef in certain areas, like th and things like that. So that we're like, okay, an We learned it's like, everything's uniform there. Like if you're on the left side, you leave the right side open. So if anybody's in a rush, they can run off, not like, you know, if we know we're supposed to be on the right side, but everybody kind of just staggers and talks to each other, it's not like that.

Ryan: 15:27

I bet getting on and off a subway is completely different in Japan versus in the United States Where everybody just kind of? qualms in and out

Len and Dawn: 15:36

Well, the subway is really neat there. Their train systems are amazing. But they have train cars for women alone and only women can be on those train cars. Yeah. To make them feel a little bit more comfortable and safe. I

Julie: 15:49

I love that.

Len and Dawn: 15:50

mean, but it's not only that, so like we were able as a family, just, you know, you've got to do what you wanted to do, but had, I wanted to ride on my own. I could have, if I really wanted to. So it was kind of

Julie: 16:00

you wanted to get away

Ryan: 16:01

I just, I was gonna say, by the end of the trip, Dawn was really looking at that car and saying, I'm so tired of Lynn and the crap that he's putting us through, I think I'm gonna go check the, for the sake of research, I'm gonna sit on this three hour train ride in the women's only car, and I'll see you later.

Len and Dawn: 16:20

like, could you imagine being by yourself?

Julie: 16:22

Sounds great. How did you feel about, the, communication going into the trip and, while you were there? Was that something you were worried about was communicating with other people? Did you learn some Japanese?

Len and Dawn: 16:33

We, we know Konnichiwa. Yes. Yes. So that

Julie: 16:38

you go.

Len and Dawn: 16:39

Thank you very much. Going into Japan, I think especially with children, you're, you're like, how do I say, where's the bathroom? You know, I'll probably be okay, but my kids won't be okay. I could hold it, but can my kids hold it? And so there's things like that are that you start worrying about. But we really, I think the language where I got a little bit nervous was, if we need directions, how do we ask for that? What if we get lost? Google Translate was a godsend. It

Julie: 17:02

Oh, really? Good to know.

Len and Dawn: 17:04

They are such amazing people that they too were trying to grab their translating like translating app on their phone to, to communicate with us. So, and they, like, we both made the effort and that's something that I can say if we even look lost, there are a few people that just came up to us. Where can I help you get to? And I was like, what? Even some Americans that were there. We weren't, we didn't know. And they would just be like, Hey, are you okay? We're trying to get to like this point. And they're like, okay, you want to go here, here and here. Like, oh, all right. It's a lot easier than we thought super kind people all over. Very easy. It's very easy to navigate down there.

Julie: 17:39

What, what were the highlights of the trip? What were the big things that really you remember that would be like a can't miss for someone who's thinking about Japan?

Len and Dawn: 17:47

A baseball game. We're a baseball family to say the

Ryan: 17:50

What an experience to see a baseball game in Japan.

Len and Dawn: 17:55

And we got to go to one of the most exciting games down in, it was in Osaka. Dragons vs Tigers. It was the, yeah, and it was like, it was one of those things that we had really hard time getting tickets for. So when we got the tickets, it was, it was worth it because even the people at the stadium walking up, I was like a kid in a candy store.

Ryan: 18:16

That's awesome.

Julie: 18:17

I love that. That's so cool.

Len and Dawn: 18:19

It really was that I highly recommend that to anybody who's going, even if you're not a baseball family, it's just, the experience is so different from what we're used to. So where we live, we have the Chicago White Sox and we have the Chicago Cubs. The environment itself is just such a whole different feel. It's just a whole different vibe. Everyone there is for the game. It's not just a drinking fest or a, you know, a mingling. And that's what we're not like what we know. Right. And out there, everyone is in it. Everyone's chanting. They have a whole different section for the opposing team so that the rest of the stadium is all for whoever's there.

Ryan: 18:54

So it sounds to me, with my experience with European football, very similar. Yeah.

Len and Dawn: 19:00

So they just do sports a little bit differently than what we do. I guess they really pay attention, and they do really pay attention to the sports. There's people that are sitting there, and they're keeping track of all of, you know, what's going on. Yeah, I had a full blown conversation via Google Translate with the gentleman next to me about what was going on in the field. And we, not like arguing, but I kind of told him, like, Hey, you did that wrong. Let's try it this way. And he looked at me like, what would you know about baseball? Right. And I coaching it, watching it, growing up, playing it. And then I told him, like, I kind of had to draw it out for him. And then I told him via the chat, he's like, Oh, they

Julie: 19:38

the same? Okay.

Len and Dawn: 19:42

what we could, from what we see cheerleaders there. I know that that's new. Like, like we have cheerleaders.

Julie: 19:47

Okay.

Len and Dawn: 19:53

And this is something separate, but like we have beer men, they had beer women in like these cute pink outfits. It was so cool. It's like just so random for us. It's random because it's exactly not what

Ryan: 20:06

So besides the baseball game, what were some of the other highlights?

Len and Dawn: 20:09

We also enjoyed like, so down in Osaka, we did baseball and then we did universal,

Ryan: 20:13

Huh.

Len and Dawn: 20:14

And universal was just amazing. What we could tell you is that it's not like home. It's not as big. But it is to the point where here you want a fast pass. You got to pay for the fast pass cause you don't want to stand in two hour lines, right there. The longest line we waited in both Disneyland, Tokyo, and by the sea and universal was about 25,

Ryan: 20:40

Oh my gosh.

Len and Dawn: 20:41

It wasn't bad at all. Like, I don't know what they're doing there compared to what we're doing. I don't know if they pack a ton of people in or something along those lines, but They are down to the T. They know exactly how to get people in and out and they push them through and it was very enjoyable and it wasn't like, Oh God, again, I got to wait in the two hour line again. Like it was everything moved, it moved and it was a smooth train that just kept chugging along and you don't feel like you missed anything. You got to experience it all. And it was just like, again, like the people there are just so kind. It just, it was just a great experience. Again, just another great thing.

Ryan: 21:17

So Tokyo DisneySea has been rated year after year as the best theme park in the world. Did it live up to the hype?

Len and Dawn: 21:26

That's a great question. So I think on some levels, yes. And some levels we're just, you know, used to our own.

Ryan: 21:33

Mm hmm.

Len and Dawn: 21:34

And when I say, Oh, like I know we have California, but when we say home, it's, it's Florida. And so the hype about it is like, the technology is the better, right? There is the beauty and the beast ride that's out there. And Oh my God, I wish we had that. Like, why don't we have that? We, we, we put it up. I filmed the entire beauty and the beast ride on our YouTube channel. So we'll have to share that with you guys. You guys need to watch it.

Ryan: 21:56

do. Yeah.

Len and Dawn: 21:57

a long one. It's a long ride. It's like what? Maybe nine minutes. Yeah. It's, it's a long, it's, I think our video was 11 or 12 minutes, which I felt we, yeah, but you feel like you're in the movie. You're watching the animatronics, they're a little bit better than ours. There's a couple of the pieces of magic that are happening right in front of your eyes. You're like, how did that just happen? Like, I don't even know how they

Julie: 22:16

So cool.

Len and Dawn: 22:17

as far as like other things, the foods are different. They're known for their popcorn. That is. So differently flavored every, like, there was sweet and sour. That was, there was soy sauce, there was peaches and cream. What else was it? They,

Ryan: 22:31

sounds so

Len and Dawn: 22:31

they actually have a whole building dedicated just to all the, we couldn't get in the line. The line was outrageous. The line was longer. That might've been longer than the

Ryan: 22:39

that, that was the longest line you encountered, yeah.

Julie: 22:41

That's where everyone was.

Len and Dawn: 22:43

Yes. But it smelled amazing. So that was like another, like, it was kinda like a Gideon's line. Probably even longer than Gideon's honestly, but it was pretty amazing. So then other things, I think just some of the rides are just different than ours. You know like how Epcot has the water in the center and the lagoon or whatever, and they do the fireworks and the shows, they have something very similar at, Disney Sea? They went around and floats and they came, they went around and floats on their water. On their water, which screens and fireworks and, and people jumping around and stuff. It was really cool. But what I was gonna say was. Just like we have people that try to sit in front of like, like the, the, the castle for the parade and the shows and things, they were sitting out there as soon as the door opened. Cause we did, rope got there too. Cause why not? But they were no joke sitting right there by that, by, by the edge of the lagoon. And they were waiting for that show from like, dead start. They had blankets on the ground. Section doc, they were saving their spot. It was, they, they cleaned their spots earlier. We, we didn't understand that at first, like what it was for, and we're like, what are they doing? Like they should be on the rise, like what we're doing. No, they were waiting for the show. I can also tell you this out there they treat it as a luxury and I, and I say that like with the utmost respect from US in America, but they're there. They're dressed up. They have high heels on or flat, big, high wedges. Girls are dressed to the tee. Like, they're like, if we were going out on a, on a, a fancy date. And that's what they were wearing downtown. That's what they were wearing. And it just, and it kind of shocked me because I'm like, don't we want to be comfortable? Like I felt a little under 100

Ryan: 24:14

you, were, you were a theme park warrior and you're like,

Len and Dawn: 24:18

something like that. They were, but they were like, I don't know how their feet weren't hurting. Cause I can't do it for an hour. Yeah, they were sharp. Makeup done everything. It was just like, yeah, I'm melting in this in the humidity and they just looked flawless. It was, it was different. It was a different, different atmosphere. It was, it was really great. So I think as far as the hype goes, I think some and ask some aspects. Yes. And some aspects I just wanted to be at home, you know, but it was great experience overall.

Ryan: 24:46

gotcha,

Julie: 24:46

What about like cultural activities? What were some of the cultural highlights? Yes. Brian! Haha.

Len and Dawn: 25:03

we did the street food tour in Osaka. And it was funny'cause we were waiting to meet like a Japanese guy who's just gonna tour us around. And then here comes a Jack Sparrow looking type dude. And he was French. He was the coolest. He was the coolest guy ever. He was great for

Julie: 25:23

Okay.

Len and Dawn: 25:24

him. Hans, right? Yeah, he was amazing. So it all started off with like, do you have any allergies? Absolutely not. Do you have anything you don't want to try? Absolutely not. What do you want to try? Everything. And that's actually something I would suggest. To anybody planning to go out there or really anywhere, do it all. Try it all. Yeah. Open mind, open mind. Don't, no, don't say no, unless it's dangerous, but it's not dangerous. I know. I always say that is because when we first started dating a long time ago

Julie: 25:52

Okay. Okay.

Len and Dawn: 25:53

I was just absolutely against seafood. We're getting ready to hit 17 years married and now she's got me barbecuing lobster and shrimp and crab and all this stuff. He's like, I've been missing it all this time. So when we went out there. We were like, we're not saying no to anything. We try. So then it started off with like, okay, well, I know some cool places we're going to hit up and we're like, okay, we're just following you. I think overall we stopped at like five or six different places throughout the evening. It was like a four hour tour and do not expect to not be full and feeling like a little sick afterwards because you've eaten so much stuff, but you can't say no, you

Julie: 26:27

my gosh.

Len and Dawn: 26:28

So the first place we went to was like a restaurant inside. I don't even know, like you just walk up these stairs and in this place that you didn't even expect to be there. And there is this nice place you sit down. He ordered everything. We had some refreshers that was like vodka with some fruit thing. I don't know. It was delicious. Definitely refreshing. We're like, we need this at home. And then he just, he showed us a menu and we're like, yeah, we can't read this, but we want. Whatever you want, we're just, we just want, truthfully, what we said was we want, we want like what they're known for. What is this place known for? We want it. We want to know what the big hype is. And so I think even there, like we had like 12 different plates and then we're already full. Right. And you're like, dammit, we can't be full yet.

Ryan: 27:13

You've got you've got three more hours.

Len and Dawn: 27:15

I didn't realize that we also had like six more places to go. So then we go to the next place. What was the next place? Next place was. Oh, on the way to the next place, there was a mochi place and I, we love mochi. And it's different there than here. Out there, it's the mochi, like the dough is, or rice, it's like the rice coating, it's over it's surrounding fruit. Whereas home here, I, we just get from the grocery store and it's like ice cream, but out there it's fruit. So we had grapes, we had strawberries, there was chocolate, there was, I forget what else, pineapple. All of it was delicious. And then on the way to the next place, that's when we were on the actual street, it kind of looked like a, a back alley, it kind of looked like We weren't sure, but we were happy we did it because we had all kinds of tempura, everything. What were the octopus balls called? The teragaki? I can't pronounce it. We can't pronounce it, but we ate it. I don't know.

Ryan: 28:06

pronounce it but I ate it

Len and Dawn: 28:08

It was just like, he's like, try this. I'm like, okay. We're like, okay, what is that? Octopus balls. And we're like, what? It's not what you think it is. Yeah, that was a different texture. It was balls of dough, which had chunks of octopus in it. You don't know that when you're eating it and you're just not sure. You're not sure what you're eating, but everything was delicious. Then we, uh, then we walked past the running man, which is, I guess, a big thing out there. It's all, everything's all lit up. Beautiful, like bright city kind of gave me a little bit of Vegas vibes, but it wasn't. That's it all just bright and light lit up and then where else did we go then? Oh, then we were in like the other back alley. Yeah, we're so he was like you like whiskey i'm like, yeah, I love whiskey so he took us down to this little mini bar where he got us a And another couple of drinks where we tried something else. And he's like, it's really good, really good. So I tried, I was like, Oh my God, this is really good whiskey. And he just knew the hookup. Yeah. He, he, he knew these places we were in and out and he brought us down to another place and like one of these alleys or whatever, but it's not an alley, but it's home here. It looks like, kind of like that, but it's all popping. Like everything's busy and everything. There was Turkish ice cream. And so then we got that for the kids got to have ice cream. Cause. He's like, we got to get them dessert. We're like, okay.

Ryan: 29:29

I mean, you have whiskey, so they have to have ice cream.

Julie: 29:31

Yeah, yeah.

Len and Dawn: 29:33

Even if you got to balance out somewhere, but that was like a whole show because the guy who was doing the Turkish ice cream, he's playing with like the scoops and the cones. So like, he'd go and give it to him, but then he had multiple cones. So then he would snatch it away. It was just like a fun game and it was entertainment. And then everyone around us was laughing and it was just a great. And then there were a couple other pieces of food, like along the way that he just grabbed. He was like, you gotta try this, you gotta try this, you gotta try this. I'm like, I can't eat more. Highly recommend doing a food street tour. We, we did everything too. Like all of our tours that we've done. The tour we did in Tokyo and the tour we did in Osaka, they were private. I mean, a bunch of other people, but it's just like, I wanted to experience it. I wanted to firsthand. If it wasn't private and we had, let's say 10 other people with us, they're going to divvy up all their time.

Ryan: 30:21

Yeah. Yeah.

Len and Dawn: 30:22

I wanted to learn. I

Ryan: 30:23

Yeah. No, that's a great strategy. Totally. I understand that.

Len and Dawn: 30:28

Yeah. So that was absolutely worth, it was worth the money. I can say that a hundred percent.

Julie: 30:32

Good.

Ryan: 30:33

Julie, if you want to eat well when you're in Osaka, Japan, look for a Frenchman named Hans.

Julie: 30:41

I love that so much. Oh, gosh.

Ryan: 30:43

so we have some more questions about family travel in general, but first, like we do at every show, I want to talk about where in the world does all things travel? So, Julie, when I went back and looked at where people are listening To all things travel, a place that popped up that we have not talked about, I don't believe in the past, is Jacksonville, Florida.

Julie: 31:08

Okay.

Ryan: 31:08

And so the place I found in Jacksonville that looked really cool to me was Big Talbot Island State Park. And one of the things that I like about this is it has a beach on it that has salt washed skeletons of live oak and cedar trees. And so you go to this place and there's like all these like wooden driftwood kind of skeleton sculptures all along the beach. And that just sounds really, really cool and interesting to see.

Julie: 31:39

sounds very different from my beaches. Yes. Okay.

Ryan: 31:49

on Facebook or via email, because we have a little thank you gift for being featured on today's show.

Julie: 31:56

Okay.

Ryan: 32:04

I have talked about this topic in the past. As parents, why is it important to take your kids on these types of trips?

Len and Dawn: 32:13

It's funny you ask that because we just were in the car the other day. And as we're popping along from obviously your podcast and then a couple of other

Ryan: 32:21

Obviously, I

Len and Dawn: 32:22

and, and, We're listening to Mr. Lee Cockrell as well. Right. Cause I'm just, I kind of got into a couple of his books. Now we were like, oh, we shouldn't travel while they're young. And we were like, why did we think that? Cause we were always told, Oh, it'll be too difficult. It'll be, don't do it. Don't do it. You don't want to lug them around and all this stuff. And with this trip specifically, because it was, I think longer and just more cultural, different, just different, the shock. Yeah. culture shocks. I would have to say it's just so important that they see other things. What's here isn't the only thing that's, I guess, existing, right? But they're, they learned so much while they were out there. They learned out there, I think, that they wanted to see bigger, better things, more things, and just the experiences alone, the memories that they made. They're still talking about them. They go to school and they're telling their teachers. I went to Japan and then they're like, Oh, they said that they went to Japan. They, we did go to Japan and then just the experiences and like putting, skills to use or just seeing what other people go through

Julie: 33:30

it reminds me of like, when we were at our conference at agent Palooza, and they had the introduction of if you show me the world, right. And it was all the little kids saying, you know, if you show me the world and some of the responses were just so cool, how they would, care for other people and they would contribute better to society, like things like that. Is that kind of where you're thinking? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Len and Dawn: 33:52

Yeah, I think, yeah, we just wanted them to be diverse or different. We want them to see something that's not normal, and I mean, we didn't get that opportunity. I mean, I got to go to Canada and Mexico when I was younger, but that's not the same when you travel 13 hours to see a culture that was like, no, we're going to go. Boom, boom, boom. And you're going to go along with that culture. Cause you're like, wow, this is different. This is new, right? In some cases, there were a couple of things that they saw that they didn't like, or feel comfortable with or whatever it was. And they were like, oh, I I'm, I'm happy where we are. Like, I like where we are and I'm happy and I'm proud of where I'm coming from. I see that they're proud of where they're coming from. With whatever their cultural background is just learning the differences and it's not

Julie: 34:40

And accepting them, right?

Len and Dawn: 34:41

yet. And it.

Julie: 34:43

that's what it is. It's accepting those differences. Yeah.

Len and Dawn: 34:48

their own opinion on something that they got to experience. Like I was saying before, like, with books and stuff, you're seeing somebody else's perspective. They got to do that on their own. They got to draw, like, right on the bullet train. And they got to see what that's like versus our city trains. Or they got to see Hiroshima when we went out there. We would never have been able to, I guess, express what actually happened without them actually physically seeing the Well, the bricks that were laying there, cause we got to see whatever was left over. So like things like that, I think that's, was very important. Like they just got to, yeah, the experiences as young kids, right? Not teenagers, young kids. They got to see they stood three blocks away from where the bomb was actually dropped. And then it just started putting it into perspective. Like, Oh my gosh, like this, this is history. Like I'm seeing history for myself. It's not in pictures. So I think that's something to like, sometimes I think these kids growing up, especially now it's just so different from when. A lot of us were younger, right? And so, seeing it versus reading it, seeing it versus in person versus on TV, like, all of those things, they're seeing it on their own.

Julie: 35:53

Yeah. It's just a whole new perspective. So where would you say that, like, when you kind of started that conversation, Dawn, would you say that, like, you wish you had traveled more when they were younger to more diverse places?

Len and Dawn: 36:06

Yes. Highly suggested. In fact, I had just talked to a friend yesterday and he has a two year old and he has another baby on the way and he's early forties himself. And he used to do a lot of traveling and I'm like, don't wait. Keep going. He's like, when my traveling days start up again, I'm like, no, like, you know, don't wait. Maybe wait till the baby's here. Like because she's

Julie: 36:28

Yeah. Well, and it is a lot when they're so little, right? Like diapers and pack and plays and all those kinds of things like that's, that's the phase I'm in and we're looking to go to Italy and that's just like, Oh, you know, so that, that's so good to hear you guys say that. I love that. Okay.

Len and Dawn: 36:44

We told him, I'm like, don't, just don't wait. We regret it. You know, our oldest is 12 now. We regret it. And that's a lot of time away from us traveling too, not to sound selfish, but like we're holding our learning back too, we could be seeing things we're also educators too. We can now tell our students like, Hey, this is, we saw this. This is our own picture. Like, check this out. This is what I'm teaching you about or something. You know what I mean?

Julie: 37:06

cool. That's so cool. What are some other great tips that you could pass along when doing a big family trip like this to a, to a very new destination, a very different destination, and something that's going to be a very long trip?

Len and Dawn: 37:19

I would always Take it, take it, take it day by day. Okay. Yes. So at some point we start like kind of rushing through. Cause we want to see it all. We want to see it all, but it wasn't, it wasn't necessary. Take it.

Ryan: 37:32

I like, I like that you rushed through and then you miss what you were rushing to see.

Len and Dawn: 37:36

Right. Yes. Like, when we got to the Shibuya crossing, and I don't know if you know anything about the Shibuya crossing, it's like, at one point, everybody just crosses in any which way.

Ryan: 37:44

it's the intersection in Tokyo, correct?

Len and Dawn: 37:47

so neat. It's so cool. And you're like, Oh my gosh, we're actually here. We were kind of like, I was filming it. I went live with sometimes and, and I, we didn't stop to take it in. So I had to go back and rewatch the video. I'm like, man, I, I just, I should have just waited and did it and then redid it again, you know, just, I think that's a good one. But I think another thing too, is also. still to take those pictures as well, because I'm like, Oh, you know, I forgot to take a picture of blah, blah, blah, because I was, you know, talking or whatever we were doing. And I'm like, man, now I forgot what it looks like, like, because I remember just being in that moment, which is not a bad thing, but I also want a memory of that moment too. So I

Julie: 38:27

Yeah,

Len and Dawn: 38:28

But still take it in either way. I think big thing too, is to use a travel advisor. I always want to go back because, because I don't think we would have gotten the same experience had we not done that. If we would've did it on our own, I think we would've made some mistakes. So it was good to, to get some perspective and some ideas from somebody who does it for a living all the time.

Julie: 38:49

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Len and Dawn: 38:51

another thing I would have to say is so one thing we did miss, but we. And we regret it is we weren't keeping track of time as far as we missed it by how many hours we tried to, we were going to do 30, 30 minutes samurai. Yeah. So I was looking up some stuff. While we were in Osaka and I was like, an eight hour course of being a samurai, what they do, how they do it, live, kind of live like that. dress in it. You get to eat with them on the floor. It was going to be amazing. Play with the katanas and I didn't hit the go button fast enough. So we missed out. I missed out. And that was just, I should have just did it. Yeah. So I think that's another lesson we learned too, is just like, just do it. You want to do it, do it, because then you're going to regret it. When are we going to go back to Japan to like experience that? So just like anywhere you go that you don't think you're going to make it back out there, just do it. And honestly, I understand everyone lives differently and money and all that other stuff, but if you're not going to maybe do it again ever, or if something's going to prevent you from trying it again, even though you plan to go back again, just, do it because you're going to miss out

Julie: 39:56

That's so awesome. And just to clarify, Len and Dawn were not travel advisors at that time. They are now.

Len and Dawn: 40:06

we start, when we start planning it. We were not, and then that may going into that June, we just signed on. So we were sold fresh. There was no way given her, we're going to be able to do that by ourselves.

Julie: 40:20

Right. Right. Right. Right. That's awesome. Oh, gosh.

Ryan: 40:23

So I know we've talked about a lot of your experiences. Are there any other top tips for when you're visiting Japan that you want people to know about?

Len and Dawn: 40:32

Yes. Karaoke is a must. Now it sounds, it sounds, it sounds ridiculous, right?

Julie: 40:37

It does.

Len and Dawn: 40:39

because we could do that here in the States, and, but it's not the same. It's, it's a lot more fun because we go there and there, they have these packages while you go there and it was like an all you can pretty much eat, drink and sing for a certain price. And we're like, okay, yeah, we're going to do that. And they do everything in the end. Right. And we get out there. I was like, oh man, this is going to be expensive. I was like, oh, well just do it. We get out. I think it costs us 42 American

Ryan: 41:07

all four of you?

Len and Dawn: 41:09

yeah, for all four of us.

Julie: 41:10

Whaaat?

Ryan: 41:10

Ah!

Len and Dawn: 41:11

It was awesome. And we were pounding, I was pounding beers and the

Julie: 41:15

So what did you what did you sing? What did you sing? Ha

Len and Dawn: 41:19

a lot of

Ryan: 41:19

You're saying everything!

Julie: 41:21

ha!

Ryan: 41:22

to the number of beers that he had.

Len and Dawn: 41:26

It just, it just progressively got worse. Cause we're not good singers at all. But a lot of, it was a lot of, it was all in English. So we were a little surprised. And a lot of Disney was offered a lot of like the basic songs or popular songs that would be sung here. It was available there too, but it was, yeah. So that was a fun thing. One other, one other piece everybody was like, Oh, change your money in the States, change your money in the States. We did a small amount just in case, but when we got there, we actually took more money and exchanged it there. And we, we got a better rate while we were in Japan.

Julie: 42:01

okay,

Len and Dawn: 42:02

and they, the banks there were so friendly. The people who were working with us were so friendly. It was, it was a real smooth transition.

Julie: 42:11

Okay, good to know,

Len and Dawn: 42:12

yeah, it, it wasn't really big. Like you didn't have to like rush to get money. It was, it was very helpful. They were

Julie: 42:19

I love

Ryan: 42:20

Great, great.

Julie: 42:21

The big question is where are you going next? Oh.

Len and Dawn: 42:40

we're going to, we're going to be on the fantasy.

Julie: 42:43

That's awesome. I love

Len and Dawn: 42:44

Our next big one, we're going to be married 20 years. So we're going to yeah, we're going to do like Italy, Paris, Paris, Disney, obviously Disneyland, and then England and Germany. We're going to

Julie: 42:59

You're gonna do, like, the UROP Grand Tour.

Len and Dawn: 43:03

maybe just pack a bunch of different tours, different trips back to back to back. We might do that. That should be, so that's going to be our big one. And we're encouraging everybody to tag along because we're going to be married 20 years. We want to celebrate with everybody. So. Family, friends, anybody who wants to play with us. Did you just say Julie, you're going to go to

Julie: 43:22

I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm early stages. We were going to do summer of 26. That was what we were going to do summer of 25, but I think we're going to push it off till summer of 26. Maybe we'll see how it goes. So what year will,

Len and Dawn: 43:36

I think our

Julie: 43:37

you be there?

Len and Dawn: 43:38

27, that's our, we're going to be married. Okay. We'll get your tips and then we'll

Ryan: 43:43

ha ha ha!

Julie: 43:43

Yeah, my dad, my dad wanted to go when he was 68, and I think that will be in 2025. But we haven't really reconvened about it. But we're still, we're still trying to figure it out. But you guys, this is really encouraging me.

Len and Dawn: 43:58

Do it.

Ryan: 43:59

Len and Dawn, thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. This has been awesome. Can you tell people how to get a hold of you if they want to talk about, Taking a trip like this. And also you mentioned YouTube, you mentioned podcasts. So give us all the information of how we can check in on YouTube

Len and Dawn: 44:17

For Instagram CMV underscore with underscore Len underscore and underscore Dawn. And then we, it's just, I'm sorry. That's just, it's just

Ryan: 44:27

And we'll, and we'll put that in the show notes for, for this week too, just to just, just to help, just to help with the underscore.

Len and Dawn: 44:33

Thank you. I'm going to send you all the links, but we're also on Facebook and that's creating magic vacations with Len and Dawn. And then we're on YouTube with travel with Len and Dawn. We're on Tik TOK with travel with Len and Dawn. We're just a bunch of travel with Len and Dawn, but we'll send you everything and you could post it wherever you need to post it.

Ryan: 44:52

Awesome.

Julie: 44:53

love That

Ryan: 44:54

Well, thank you so much for talking to us, and you know that we're gonna ask you to be on the show again.

Julie: 45:00

it.

Len and Dawn: 45:01

Please. It would be awesome.

Ryan: 45:03

All right.

Julie: 45:03

You want to plan a trip to an amazing destination like Japan but don't know how to get started? As your travel advisors, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on the fun and creating memories. You can reach us at julie at creatingmagicvacations. com

Ryan: 45:22

Or Ryan at CreatingMagicVacations. com We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel when Julie discusses her recent trip with her family on the Disney Wish.